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Sunday, 30 December 2012

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It's been a busy couple of weeks (okay, more like months) since I've been able to post regularly, some of it interesting, some of it not so much (grading essays is so much more time consuming than grading math tests). To give you an idea of what's been happening on a more behind-the-scenes level, I present to you another installment of Wide Angle, a casual look at my day-to-day ... captured on my iphone.

I have a lot of stories and posts in the works to catch up on from the last couple of months, and even more beyond that based on the next couple months (we're in the midst of our big travel time over here). I'm going to try and keep it in sequence and ignore that it's actually Christmas and New Years holiday, and show you some photos as far back as Hallowe'en. Just roll with it. And so, in light of the fact that it is the holiday and I'm sitting in a hotel room in Hanoi, I'm going to move right on the photos now.

1. Ask and I will deliver - this is what the Ikea sign looks like in China.2. I can't resist the colours on these shoes! I smile everytime I look down.3 & 4. Hallowe'en - 1 dress, 2 ways. #3 is my representation of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and #4 is Ms. Frizzle of Magic School Bus fame. The kids in the elementary half of the school still call Ms. Frizzle more often than not. I'm totally okay that association.5 & 6. My very frist trip to Hong Kong involved leaving the boys at home and heading over for a day of shopping and seeing. These two are taken on the way to (#5) and at (#6) Stanley / Stanley Market. A pituresque portion of Hong Kong that feels very un-Hong Kong. The best part is grabbing a drink or some eats along the water, and the shopping ain't bad either! Note: it's market style, occasional haggling accepted, so places have clearly fixed prices. Generally if it's marked it's fixed, if it's not, it's not!7 & 8. I had the opportunity to go to a conference in Beijing, which was my first (and so far, only) time there. It was a brisk in and out trip, but I did manage to make it to the old market (#7) where I indulged in some snacks of the creepy crawly variety (#8). More specifically I sampled the scorpion (after some serious pep talk from some complete strangers), and I have to say that it was actually quite good, crunchy with a nice smoky BBQ flavour. In fact, I ate two.

And there you have it, a small glimpse into what's been happening in my day to day recently. It's been a pleasure communicating with you more regularily after such a long break - fingers crossed it continues!

Saturday, 22 December 2012

Ever wonder what happens when you move to China, don’t speak
the language, and then contract a wicked virus like pneumonia? Yeah, neither
did I.

But I can now tell you, because it happened to Other Half,
and it wasn’t fun. At all. What started as an innocent cough, quickly escalated
into some wild inflammation in the lungs, which led to weeks of exhaustion, a
lot of missed classes and too many trips to a Chinese hospital to receive
antibiotics via IV twice daily. Slowly, slowly he’s coming around to the
healthy side of life, but with a too heavy work load, an environment that’s
more polluted than the body is used to, it hasn’t been easy. What a trooper, he
deserves a cake, no? Well lucky for him, not only did he pull through like a champ,
he also had a birthday, which means double reason for cake! Yay!

Traditionally when it’s Other Half’s Birthday I would bake
him up something gooey and sweet that involved chocolate and peanut
butter.Without access to a proper oven,
it was time to get creative.I still
managed to pull off the gooey, the sweet, the peanut butter, and the chocolate with just a little
ingenuity and some vague memories of no bake classics. After all, a Birthday
isn’t a Birthday without some cake!

Cake is perhaps a bit of an overstatement here, it was
really more of a… pie? Ish? It had two layers, that I know for sure, but
neither of them were traditional cake, or pie.Working with what I had on hand and access to (which we know isn’t much)
I sort of dreamed up this concoction and hoped for the best.

To start we have a layer of pseudo no-bake chocolate oatmeal
cookie, and then we add a layer of whipped peanut butter creaminess. Combined
it made a decadent, and rather delicious (if I do say so myself) Birthday
treat.

If I were to make this again I would adjust a few amounts of
certain things here and there (which is how I’m presenting the recipe below –
adjustments made) as I found the bottom chocolate layer a bit too wet, and the
top layer could have used a more traditional icing sugar (didn’t have).

At the very least, China is forcing some creativity out of me, and if the results are like this, then I'm not complaining!

Chocolate Peanut Butter "Pie"

all measurements are approximate as this was a very little-bit-of-this-little-bit-of-that recipe!

For the base:

1 1/2 cups of oats

1/4 cup of whipping cream

1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup of sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup butter

For the topping:

1 cup smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup of whipping cream

1/3 cup icing sugar

Directions

In a saucepan over medium heat melt the butter and add in cream, sugar and vanilla

Stir in cocoa powder, when combined, mix in oats and cook for a couple minutes until softened

Pour mixture into a greased pie plate - spread evenly and place in refrigerator while preparing the topping

In a medium bowl, using either a stand mixer or hand mixer, whip the cream and icing sugar until you have a light whipped cream texture (will take a few minutes)

Fold in the peanut butter to the whipped cream mixture until fully combined

Spread evenly over the base layer and refrigerate until both layers have set (about 1 hour)

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Oooooh boy! It’s been awhile… Sometimes I forget that we’re
living in China. When daily life gets
overwhelmingly busy and I don’t have much time to do anything other than work
and prepare for work the next day, it’s like I could be living anywhere in the
world. Then I’ll try and do something totally normal like use Google, write on
my blog, and stalk my friends on Facebook, and I’m blocked from all of it. All.
Of. It. And I’m frustrated back into
reality. I’m having a blast here in
China, but there are many things that show themselves as the reality of life
here and I have to remember that sometimes ignorance is bliss. We’re slowly getting the use of certain tools
back that allow us to work around the firewalls here on the mainland, and so
hopefully I’ll be able to get into a routine again. Hopefully. (note: I’m not always blocked from using Google, but
for reference it is blocked about 85% of the time).

But I'm back now, temporarily at least, and I have lots of lit bits and pieces to share with you! I'll hopefully be able to continue with some semi-regular posting and life sharing, hooray! Let's have a celebratory salad... yes, salad. A nice, fresh, simple salad. Ah bliss.

While one reality is living behind a virtual iron curtain, another reality of living here is the fact that people don’t
seem to cook food without an inch of oil in the bottom of the pan. It’s not greasy, it’s oily. For the first
time, I understand the difference, and so do my innards. It’s time for salad. I’ve craved salad before, but never like I do
here. Fresh foods are often considered
quite sketchy, organic foods (if you can find them) are generally about as
organic as that Channell bag is Chanel and if you even go near an article
written about the farming and inspection practices in the newspaper you’ll want
to eat nothing but imported soda crackers for the rest of your life. Needless to say, fulfilling the salad craving
isn’t always easy. Slowly, with time we’ve learned where to shop, what to
trust, and what to turn a blind eye too.

And so it is that this salad, while simple, was borne from
weeks of planning and searching for various ingredients. Never has so much pre-work gone into a couscous
salad. I’m certain of it. Happily, this
turned out to be exactly what I needed.
It was fresh, it was crisp, it was refreshing. My body rejoiced after this one.

There is nothing earth shatteringly new about this
recipe. In fact it’s a very simple
couscous salad that uses minimal ingredients and requires only a few steps easy
steps, but the result is a highly flavourful, healthy salad. Oily innards beware!

Mediterranean Couscous Salad

Approximately 1 – 1.5 cups cooked couscous

200g feta cheese, cubed

8 cherry tomatoes, quartered

½ of a small cucumber, diced

1 can French Lentils, drained and rinsed

1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

½ tsp ground white pepper

2 Tbsp white wine vinegar

salt to taste

1.Combine the couscous, feta, tomatoes, cucumber
and lentils in a medium bowl